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Junkyard Gem: 1998 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport Wagon

Ever since the 2005 model year, only the Subaru Legacy-based station wagon has worn the Outback name. That makes it tough to recall that not only did Subaru sell Legacy Outback sedans (through 2004, although by that time the Legacy badges had been dropped from the Outback wagon) but Impreza Outbacks as well. This isn't as confusing as Oldsmobile selling three unrelated models badged as Cutlasses at the same time, or Toyota calling the Tercel a Corolla Tercel for a few years, but it's a bit of automotive history that can be illuminated via a junkyard visit. Because you'll find examples of just about every vehicle Subaru built during the last 25 years in every Denver junkyard, it didn't take me long to find this Acadia Green Impreza Outback here. The Impreza Outback wagon had been around since the 1995 model year, becoming the Impreza Outback Sport in 1997. All North American Subarus went to all-wheel-drive for 1997, so the Impreza and Legacy Outbacks became more outdoorsy-looking at that point, to distinguish themselves from the non-Outbacks. While the advertising for this car called it just the "Outback Sport" (to distinguish it from the Legacy Outback), the Impreza name appeared on the rear bumper and in all the documentation. This sort of airport-gate-carpeting pattern became very popular on cars that were supposed to appeal to young people during the late 1990s. You'll see similarly busy fabric in Volkswagens Jetta Trek Editions and Plymouth Expressos from around the same period. I've always admired Subaru's hood scoops of this era. This one appears to have been lifted from the Japanese-market WRX. This 2.2-liter boxer-four made 137 horsepower. If you wanted the 150-horsepower 2.5 engine in an Impreza in 1998, you had to buy the RS Coupe. With the 5-speed manual transmission in a 2,835-pound car (the current Impreza doesn't weigh a whole lot more, which is unusual in our era of Model Bloat), the 1998 Impreza Outback Sport was quick enough to be fun. The automatic version was… well, not quite as much fun. This appears to be a genuine 1990s Jack in the Box antenna ball. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. When pursued by baddies in a RAV4, the Outback Sport had you covered. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Just add power | 2017 Subaru Impreza First Drive

The phrase "all new" gets bandied about way more than it should in the automotive world. Depending on how lenient an automaker's marketing department is feeling at the time, refreshed fascias and a reshuffling of trim levels might earn a tired vehicle the all-new appellation. That's not what Subaru has done with its reborn Impreza compact. Everything from its wheels to its windows has been completely redesigned for 2017. With one glaring exception, the 2017 Subaru Impreza has benefited immensely from its rebirth. The chassis is stiffer, the steering is better, and the interior is larger than before. Like on most Subarus, standard all-wheel drive remains a key selling point. The only thing that's missing is more power. Subaru has gotten guff over the years for its exterior design, with vehicles being called everything from ugly (Baja) to odd (B9 Tribeca). The 2017 Impreza doesn't fit those descriptions. There's just enough surfacing pressed into its bodysides to attract the eye, and the burly flared-shoulder fenders add a muscular stance. Dead-on, the Impreza's face is a bit too nondescript – if it didn't wear a Subaru badge, you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for a Honda or Toyota – but it's not unattractive. The bug eyes of Imprezas past are now nothing more than a historical footnote. The Impreza is again available as either a sedan or, for $500 more, a hatchback. The trunk of the sedan measures 12.3 cubic feet. Obviously, the hatch offers more utility than the sedan, with 20.8 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats and a maximum of 55.3 cubes with the seats folded. That's more than the VW Golf's 52.7 and way more than the new Honda Civic hatchback's maximum of 46.2. The first thing we noticed from the driver's seat is how easy it is to see out of the 2017 Impreza. Visibility is excellent in every direction, and all that glass means the cabin feels light and airy. Large, easy-to-read speedometer and tachometer gauges sit front and center, but the rest of the information needed for the task of driving is spread across three different LCD screens. The first sits between the two gauges, and the second is atop the center stack. The third screen is the largest, measuring 6.5 inches on base 2.0i models and 8.0 inches in Sport and Limited trims.

2015 Subaru WRX

Every time I drive a Subaru WRX, I wish one of my parents had taken some weird, top-secret spy job that would have forced us to relocate to Finland when I was a kid. I could have learned the art of rally-style car control as a young lad, and in my adult life, sought out a dangerous/rewarding/awesome career as a professional WRC driver.
Never was that more clear than on the launch program for the new 2015 WRX, where Subaru pointed us down a long, somewhat treacherous stretch of road in the tree-lined mountains of northern California. Quick elevation changes were met with blind turns and washed-out shoulders, not to mention rogue bits of snow, ice and gravel that lined the apexes of nearly every turn. Here, I couldn't stop grinning, my co-driver and I switching between second and third gears, with precise steering inputs and judicious braking keeping us safely on the road and not plummeting nose-first into the trees. And the WRX simply devoured each inch of pavement with a ferocious poise that made me remember why I have loved this car so darn much.
But this sort of 100 Acre Wood perfection isn't the only way to experience Subaru's darling WRX. After a long stint of driving back down the California coast on Highway 1, I realized that Subaru's line about this being the best-driving WRX yet wasn't just a bunch of PR mumbo-jumbo. Of course, it isn't without a few compromises...